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Publisher's Summary

Ask anyone on the wrong side of the law about the two minute rule and they'll tell you that's as long as you can hope for at a robbery before the cops show up. Break the two minute rule and it's a lifetime in jail. But not everyone plays by the rules...

When ex-con Max Holman finally gets out of jail, freedom doesn't taste too sweet. The only thing on his mind is reconciliation with his estranged son, who is, ironically, a cop. But then he hears the devastating news: His son and three other Los Angeles police officers were gunned down in cold blood the night before Holman's release. When the hit is exposed as a revenge killing and the question of police corruption is raised, it becomes a father's last duty to clear his son's name and catch the killer.

With all the elements that have made Robert Crais one of the very best crime novelists today, The Two Minute Rule is gripping, edgy suspense from the author who sets the standard when it comes to surprising plot twists and powerful characters.

A few of the characters are well acted by the narrator but the book teeters between interesting detail and trite repetition. Not much humor, either, and the suspense is mediocre compared to other Crais books. The romance part was a stretch and it's fraught with stereotypes throughout. I listened to it straight on through over 2 nights and overall was disappointed. (sigh)

The book starts out with the release of a bank robber from 10 years in prison. He hasn't seen his son since he was convicted, and is hoping he didn't follow in his father's footsteps. The son turned out well, as a cop, but was murdered along with three other cops shortly before Holman's release. It becomes his quest to find out exactly what happened, since the police's case just doesn't add up for him. With the help of the FBI agent that arrested him, they find themselves in all kinds of conspiratorial trouble. The premise of the ex-agent helping the convict is a bit far fetched, but she does it reluctantly at first, then he draws her interest with facts she can't ignore. It's an interesting "who done it" with excellent narration that keeps the earbuds in .

Until this I was a Robert Crais fanboy. Now... not so much. Uh-huh, there's this "disbelief" hurdle that authors have to prod you to leap. This time Crais built it too high. There's an eau de amor wafting about this cop-story which should be its cement but it smells all wrong. WEEEERD brackish pheromones! The chemistry between the two lead characters should not have ignited... In fact, for me, it didn't ignite.... didn't even sizzle or smoke.

The plot BTW has been done too many times, and the lead character's miraculous second-act-of-life again just made that disbelief hurdle impossible to climb, much less leap. Okay.. I'll probably try Crais one ore time. This wasn't a toxic experience. If you've never read Crais, try an earlier work. I wish I'd skipped this one.

Oh... my disappointment has NOTHING to do with Christopher Graybill's terrific read.

The author does an amazing job brining you into the main characters world. You feel like you know Max and understand him. You feel sorry for the ex-con who's policeman son is killed the day before he gets out of prison. There is alot of emotion in the book but it isn't over the top. The narration is good.

I was angry at the author for one part. He had good characters do something bad that did not fit their motivations. It was unreasonable and illogical for those “good” characters to do what they did. Some good guys attacked someone, tied him, and took him to a remote location. He believed they were going to kill him. The guy escaped - barely. Later he learned they just wanted to talk to him. Well, why did they tie him? It felt like a trick by the author to mislead the reader.

The book has a lot of fear, anxiety, and stress. But most of this is done by having bad cops or FBI threatening and hurting civilians (like planting evidence and threatening jail) (or bad cop forces A to do something and when the regular cops arrive bad cop says “I’m a cop he’s the bad guy”). I’m ok with stories about bad cops, but it seemed like the easy way to provide stress. I prefer being surprised or seeing someone do something smart. I didn’t feel that here. I didn’t have any wow moments. The kinds of things in this book are the kinds of things done a lot.

Minor plot annoyance. Good guys talk to a woman. Woman says that when she saw Fowler, he was with another man. Good guys should have asked the woman to describe the other man. They did not. They left. (I was shaking my head. That’s not smart.) Later in the story they go back to the woman and ask her to describe the man.

I wasn’t drawn to the characters. I wasn’t buying their relationship. Elmore Leonard did it so much better in “Out of Sight”, escaped con flirts with and interacts with female US marshall.

The narrator Christopher Graybill was ok, but some of his voices were irritating.

What makes a good book it the writer, what makes a great book is the person who reads it to you. Robert Crais did an excellent job of leading down a path so you would "jump" to the conclusion of who was responsible for the crime, it was only a distraction. The key to catching the bad guy is in the title.

Christopher Graybill has now become one of my favorite readers. He has the ability through voice alteration, accent and any other voice manipulation you can think of, to create characters you visualize in your mind. You don't get any better than that.